Azalea
by TheSummerNightingale
Summary: It was an unfortunate thing indeed that Oliver Wood happened to walk by just as Katie dove behind the azalea bush she was standing next to.


**Written for KBOW Battle 7, ABS - Prompts used: **_1\. bush, 2. toy, 3. leg, 5. nurse, 7. chameleon_

**Written for Payday - Prompt: **_Abracadabra_

* * *

It was an unfortunate thing indeed that Oliver Wood happened to walk by just as Katie dove behind the bush she was standing next to.

Of course, one could question _why_ Katie had jumped behind the azalea bush outside of Madam Puddifoot's in the first place, but Katie Bell thought a more appropriate question would be why the Valentine's Day gods decided that it would be a good idea to throw Oliver in her path when her arms were scratched up from twigs and her hair was probably infested with leaves.

"Katie? Is that you?"

Oliver Wood's brown eyes peered at her through the shambles of leaves, flowers, and branches, and Katie swore profusely and gestured for him to shut up.

"Katie? What the hell are you doing in a _bush -_ Oomph!"

She'd just managed to pull him behind the bush with her when the door to Madam Puddifoot's burst open and a sickening flowery scent wafted outwards (the fact that she could easily smell it over the natural scent of the peonies was disturbing).

"Katie?" called Gryffindor Anthony Goode loudly. "Katie, where'd you go?"

She kept her hand firmly clamped around Oliver's mouth until Anthony's voice started to fade as he wandered down the street and tried to find her. Oliver squirmed under her grip.

After his weight on her leg began to be a little too much for her, she relented. "If I let you go," she whispered, "you'd better not say anything."

He nodded vigorously and she let him go.

"Merlin, Bell! What the-" He stopped himself short when she sent him the most loathful glare she could possibly muster.

"Shut _up_," she hissed. "Or he'll find me."

"Goode?" When she nodded, he snorted in reply. "I don't think so. You're like a chameleon here. Wearing green and everything, I probably wouldn't have seen you if I didn't recognize your hand."

"Shh," gestured Katie, putting her finger firmly against her lips. "If Anthony finds me, I'll be forced to go back in _there_." She shuddered at the thought.

"Oh, Puddifoot's?" Oliver made a face and pushed himself off her leg. She had to admit, the loss of warmth was disappointing. "Don't blame you, then. If I were you, I'd rather spend my Hogsmeade trip in a bush rather than drinking tea with Cupids singing around you. … Of course, I'd be even more willing to sit in the dirt if a certain handsome Quidditch captain were with me-"

"Shut _up_, Oliver," said Katie, and she turned away from him because she didn't want him to see her blushing. (Because of course, that had been exactly what she was thinking.) "You can leave, you know. You don't have to stay."

"I think I'll stick around and see how it plays out," he said, shrugging. He smirked. "Nothing better to do than follow you around after all."

She cast a sideways glance at him and said half-teasingly, "No girls to charm? No one to bring to Madam Puddifoot's?"

"I wouldn't bring _anyone_ to this place," he declared. "My ideal date place would be…"

"Honeydukes," they whispered in unison, and they grinned at each other.

"We should go," Oliver said eagerly, and Katie almost nodded when she remembered why she was hiding in the bush.

"But Anthony-"

He sighed. "Here, I'll do some magic so he won't see you. Abracadabra. Boom. Come on, Bell."

"'Abracadabra'? Really?" She shook his head but smiled brightly.

That apparently was all the confirmation that Oliver needed, because he boosted himself up and out of the tangle of leaves and twigs and put a hand out to help her up. "Abracadabra. Coast is clear," he said conspiratorially. "Let's go."

* * *

Once Katie got over her fear of bumping into Anthony Goode, the hour she and Oliver spent in Honeyduke became considerably more enjoyable. It helped Oliver was just as excitable at the thought of candy as she was, and they ran around the store trying out as many candies as they could get their hands on.

"I'll try a Cockroach Cluster if you try Frog Frosting," Oliver said with a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Are you insane?" Katie waved a Chocolate Frog in the air. "I'd eat one of _these_ Frogs to see you have a Cluster, though."

"What a fair deal."

"Oh, what are _those_?" Katie weaved through a large crowd to a bright red and pink display that she had never seen before.

"Twin Toffee Toys," read Oliver. "'Find out who your soulmate is by eating these toy toffees. The person with the 'twin' symbol on their tongue is your love for this Valentine's Day!'"

He cast a sideways glance at her. "Wanna try?"

Katie shrugged and hefted a sack of candy on her shoulder. "May as well. We're eating up half the store anyway."

They each picked up a toffee, and Katie appreciatively observed the toy. It was cleverly molded into the shape of a rose, and the petals spun prettily like ballerinas in a music box. Oliver had already left to drool over other candy displays, but Katie inched towards the sign in front of the Toffee Toys.

The picture showed people with their tongues out, and on each one was a light pink flower. They were all unique, and she presumed that people with the same design out of millions on their tongue would be soulmates.

She snorted at the idea and turned away, thinking that the producers of this candy were certainly foresightful to make it something edible, because that was the only reason she was trying this "Twin Toy" out.

"Oi, Katie! Come here, I think you'll like these…"

When they were inching the two-hour mark and they hadn't yet left the store (they'd gone around two more times to make sure they hadn't missed anything), Katie suggested that they purchase their candy and have a drink at the Three Broomsticks. Oliver agreed.

"Aren't you glad we left that bush?" he asked cheerfully as they walked through light snow towards the bright pub.

"Yeah. But if we run into Anthony, I'm running back there."

Oliver didn't answer, and when she glanced at him, he was a few paces behind, the smile fading on his face.

"What?"

He frowned before saying, "Did Goode ask you to come with him today?"

"No. We just met up when we were leaving the school, and he wanted me to go with him." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"

He completely ignored her questioning glance. "So you don't _fancy_ him, do you?"

If Katie didn't know better, she would have thought she heard a bit of jealousy in his voice. "No," she said slowly. "I don't even know him that well. Why?" she asked again, but they'd reached the door of the Three Broomsticks, and the sounds of student chatter drowned out her inquiry.

(But maybe he _had_ heard her, because when he reached for her hand to pull her inside, he didn't let go until they'd sat down and ordered and she'd gestured that they kind of needed to use their hands to drink the butterbeer.)

* * *

It was three hours later, when Katie and Oliver were trudging back to the castle, that she noticed the long angry scratches on her arms that had come from the azalea bush _hurt_.

Perhaps Oliver noticed her wince as she brushed snow off her arms because he was soon pulling her sleeves and grimacing at the sight of her scratched arms.

"The bush?"

She nodded and Oliver gently touched one of the scratches. "I could probably heal that," he murmured almost to himself, and reached for his wand. "_Sanaret_."

When the scratches faded and her skin became pale and unblemished once more, Oliver smirked proudly. "I could be a nurse, no problem."

She rolled her eyes but thanked him. "Nifty spell."

"And I can make it even better!" He dug into her bag of candy and randomly pulled one out. It was the Twin Toffee Toy, and the red rose looked even brighter against the endless haze of gray and white. "Candy is the best way to heal," he declared.

"Agreed. Come on, get yours out," she grinned, already reaching for his bag and digging through the chocolates and licorice and gummies.

The toffees were surprisingly good - there was a slight cherry taste in Katie's, though Oliver reported that his had a hint of watermelon.

"You know," said Katie, closing her eyes as she finished the toffee. "Pomfrey should just get rid of all her medicine and buy stuff from Honeydukes instead."

"Toffees," declared Oliver. "The cure to azalea bush scratches."

Katie laughed aloud. She didn't notice Oliver squinting at her mouth (and for a breathless and confused moment, she thought he might be staring at her lips) until he snorted and said, "Well, speaking of azaleas, you've got one on your tongue. From the toffee toy thing."

"What? Really?" Katie stuck out her tongue and attempted to look down at the faint traces of pink on her tongue. "Canth thee enthything." She retracted her tongue. "Lemme see yours."

And if she hadn't happened to dive into an azalea bush that morning, Katie would have probably dismissed the pink outline as a primrose or daffodil; she didn't spend a lot of her time memorizing the shapes and petals of flowers.

But as it was, she had spent at least two minutes staring directly at a fallen flower, and she could not deny the fact that the curves on Oliver's tongue held a very strong resemblance to the pink petals.

Katie frantically thought of the Valentine's Day toffee sign, and, completely disregarding the fact that she'd been apprehensive of its claims, the words "soulmate" and "love" suddenly popped out at her.

"What?" Oliver drew back his tongue. "What was it? Tulip? Rose?"

They had stopped walking; Katie and Oliver could not have been more than two feet apart - why was this fact so glaringly obvious to her _now_?

Oliver was staring at her quizzically; Katie took a deep breath.

"No," she said boldly, tilting her head up to look at him in the eyes. "Azalea."

(And Katie later concluded that neither _Sanaret_, candy, nor medicine could hold a flame to the healing powers of Oliver's kiss.)


End file.
